Practical discussion on contemporary life challenges from an ancient perspective.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

A HUNGRY FRIEND

And He said to them, “Which of you shall have a friend, and
go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a
friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before
him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is
now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? I say to you, though he will not rise and give
to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and
give him as many as he needs.(Luke
11:5-8)

It has been said, “There is much we can do after we pray,
but nothing we can do until we pray.”It
is true.Apart from God’s activity what
we accomplish is doomed to fail.Jesus
warned, “without Me you can do nothing.” (John
15:5b)Still, we try, don’t
we?The modern church has functioned
without the power of God for so long, that the Holy Spirit could be withdrawn
and it is unlikely we would notice.That
is to our shame and the great loss to those who need the Gospel.

As the Lord was instructing His disciples on how to pray, He
shares with them this parable about a hungry friend.The man arrives after midnight—hungry—and the
host has no bread.Middle-eastern
customs of hospitality, however, demanded that he provide bread.They had no 24/7 convenience stores in those
days, so his only option was to go next door to his neighbor and seek to secure
some.

The physical condition of the traveler mirrors the spiritual
state of the sinner.He or she has a
heart hunger, but has no means to satisfy it.Not that people don’t try!They
gorge themselves with all this world can offer—and may find it sweet for the
moment—but, ultimately, what they are ingesting is poison.The hunger—that is really a hunger for
God—remains unsatisfied, and even intensified.Some will make it to the church in their quest.How many churches really have anything to
give them?

Thankfully, the man in this story realized his own poverty
to provide and sought help from another.The neighbor didn’t want to be disturbed, but finally realizes that if
he doesn’t get up, go to the door, and give his neighbor some bread, he is
never going to get any rest.

The point of the parable is that we must pray with
persistence.Those who seek the Lord
fervently and faithfully are those who will have something to share with a
hungry world.The good news is that God
is nothing like the neighbor.He is
never asleep.He is eager to
answer.If a sleepy neighbor will
finally respond, how much more should we expect God to answer our prayers!

It is time for the church to wake up, realize the emptiness
of our activities, and seek the activity of God!We advertise that we are a bakery with “The
Bread of Life,” and yet people are dying around us in despair for our cupboard
is bare!Child of God, this need not
be!Let us urgently cry out to God today,
for a hungry world awaits.

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About Me

I am a mountaineer by birth--a native of Asheville, NC. For a period of ten years I lived in the Charlotte area and for the last eighteen, I have been "home." I was brought up in a Christian family. In fact, I went to church nine months before I was born! Despite the best efforts of parents and preachers, I went astray. The Prodigal Son story that Jesus told in Luke 15 became my story--a sordid life of drugs and booze and that's enough for you to know. But at the age of eighteen all I had been taught came flooding back into my mind when I saw the mess I was in. Christ changed me. I gave my life to Him and as a result have spent the last three decades preaching the Gospel. I'm not all I ought to be and certainly not what I one day shall be, but thankfully, not what I used to be! God has blessed me with a great wife, five wonderful children and so far, twelve grandchildren. To Him be the glory and praise, now and forever.